Bloody Arc

by Kharneth666

The typical Gamer story has a character suddenly become an RPG character. Their body becomes defined by stats, quests and the vaunted Gamer's Mind. This is not one of those stories. Tonight, Jaune Arc joins the Hunt.

12. Curious Manias

A/N: Good news everyone! This is the last chapter that I've rewritten, and next chapter will be venturing onto new territory.

Also, I swear that I didn't plan on the four-day release plan to fall on Christmas, but let's just call it a happy coincidence, shall we?

SHOWTIME!

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Chapter 12: Curious Manias

XXXX Spring M1 W2 D6, 83 AVA XXXX

Pyrrha awoke in the late morning from the sunlight steaming through the gap in the drapes. Usually, Jaune wakes everyone up at dawn for morning exercise, but judging by the position of the sun through the window after sliding open the red drapes, it was about 09h. 'Maybe he's giving us a cheat day. It's good to relax every once in a while.'

She paused as she heard rustling from Jaune's bed. 'That's strange, he's usually up long before this.' Checking, she found him still fitfully asleep on his stomach. Deciding to wake him, she reached to gently jostle his shoulder. Upon making physical contact, his right arm reached and gripped her tightly by the throat before she could react, lifting her until her toes could barely touch the ground. His other hand stretched out to form a claw, a malevolent glow encasing his flesh. For a brief moment, she could see a feral gleam as they made eye contact.

As soon as it happened, it was over as she was released when Jaune gained full awareness of their situation. "Oh shit, Pyrrha, my apologies. It's a reflex. I didn't mean OH SHIT!" From his sudden movement and reaching off the bed, he lost his balance and fell to the floor, landing on his hands and feet like a cat in a pushup position, tangled in his sheets, before springing up to a standing position.

Seeing the sincerity of his remorseful apology, she shook her head, "It's fine. I am guilty of doing the same in the past. Another aftereffect of your training?"

As he nodded, "Yeah, it became a habit to be attacked while I slept or on the rare occasion when I slept in. Last incident happened with Blake during the change in watch."

"Is there an… easier way to wake you up?" Pyrrha asked. She didn't blame him for subconscious reflexes, but she didn't want for them to be paranoid around each other. It's likely that the reason why this hadn't happened before in reversed positions is because he used that curious bell of his.

As Jaune put on a forest green tank top, he replied, "A light hand on an arm without shaking usually works. You?"

"Top of the head, same thing." He nodded in acknowledgement. "Good to know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to… " Bringing his hand to his chest, he seemed to jolt with tension. He patted his chest a couple of times for some reason, before beginning to search the room, asking to himself repeatedly, "Where is it?"

"Jaune?" He seemed to ignore her query, his searching of his bed becoming more fervent, sheets nearly sent airborne. "No, no, no, no…"

"Jaune? What are you looking for?" She asked a bit more insistently.

"My pendant. Looks like a silver eye with a jewel in the center. I know it's in the room somewhere." He finally responded, lifting his pillow hoping in vain to find it there.

Pyrrha decided to help him look for it, as it must be important to him, although how he was so certain it was in the room she did not know. Almost immediately she spotted the item he described on his desk. Though it held orphic artistry, and was beautifully crafted with the unique jewel capturing her attention, it brought back her suspicion, borderline certainty, of Jaune being pagan. Though she had invited him to join her for evening Mass at the on-campus chapel, he politely declined with a smile, saying that he preferred prayer outside confinement. She wished to discuss with him what she and Ruby had overheard when he talked with Blake, but she was indecisive as to how to begin.

"Captivating, isn't it?" He asked, startling her from her borderline trance to reply, "Yes, especially the jewel. It looks flawlessly spherical and it has an amazingly vibrant, yet also pale gleam; I've never seen anything like it." Handing it to him, Jaune thanked her for finding it as he hung it around his neck.

"As far as I know, it's one of a kind. Now how did you get there?" He seemed to ask the pendant, the silver impossibly lackluster in the sunlight.

"Maybe you were really tired? When did you go to sleep last night?" She brushed aside her partner talking to an inanimate object as she checked her scroll, "It's almost 09h30. You're usually up at dawn." She neglected to mention the part where he's frequently been the last one to sleep, as she sometimes hears him come in at night.

"No later than usual, and I wasn't so tired that I would forget." He seemed to let the issue go. "Ah, it doesn't matter; let's see if I can scrounge up some breakfast. I'm more surprised that no one else came in."

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The others had not waited on him to start their day. To be honest it was a bit relieving, as he didn't want their lives outside of school to completely revolve around him.

Blake, who sat on the couch reading, told the pair where the others had gone. Weiss had gone to the library, both to research something as well as to drag Ruby along with her to quiz her for any gaps in her education from skipping ahead by two years. Jaune chuckled when Blake explained further that Ruby had literally asked for it, but did not expect such passion from the cold, white snow. Nevertheless, Jaune respected their initiative.

Nora had likewise brought her partner out in tow, but to the dining hall for pancakes galore as well as a workout if her excited chatter was any indication.

That only left Yang, who had decided to sleep in, taking the lack of a ringing bell as quote, "permission by omission" to slack off, however mumbling and mildly coherently she had said it.

Jaune nodded, thanking her for the update. "Cool. So Pyrrha, up for some hand to hand after breakfast?"

"That sounds lovely!" She answered a bit too quickly, and realized it soon after. Clearing her throat, "Yes, I could use some improvement in that area." In her defense, she did have a virtually foolproof method to rearm herself on the off chance that she was disarmed.

After both of them ate a quick bowl of oatmeal and dried fruit, Jaune headed out to the patio. However, Pyrrha paused by the couch. "Just, uh, give me a minute please."

"Sure, I'll wait outside." He paid her hesitation no mind as he picked up his ringing scroll to answer a call. As he went outside to talk to whoever was on the other side, she sat next to the raven-haired girl.

"Are you all right, Blake? You seem tense." Blake didn't look comfortable sitting there, hugging her legs with a book propped up on her knees when she normally laid back or down over a pillow in a more relaxed pose. The whole time Pyrrha and Jaune had been in the room, she had not heard one crinkle to indicate the turning of a page.

The reader must have been distracted because judging by the quick turn of her head; she hadn't notice the redhead approach until she sat down. "I'm just… thinking."

"If there's anything I can do to help, let me know, all right?" She offered, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Blake softly shook her head, her posture relaxing slightly. "Appreciated, but this is something I need to figure out and do for myself."

"I'm sure it will turn out for the best." The Spartan walked away, seeing Jaune end the call.

"Have fun sparring." Blake gave the top of her raven head a light scratch.

Such a thing was not to be, as Jaune rushed back in with a scowl. "Change of plans; Ozpin asked to see Ruby and me in his office."

As Jaune dressed for combat, he called out, "Blake, could you wake Yang up? He didn't say why, but we might have a mission today." He walked out to pick up the hat resting on his chair.

"I'll call the others to get ready, just in case." Pyrrha said to offer her assistance, her voice holding a mite of despondency.

He thanked her politely as he walked out the door. Jaune could hear the way she had said it, and the way he shut the door behind him conveyed his similar negative thoughts loud and clear.

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Jaune met up with Ruby, looking a bit dusty, in front of the elevator leading to the Headmaster's office, who looked much more pleased to have been called, a look of relief like she had escaped some dire fate.

As the elevator ascended, Ruby looked at Jaune and saw him scowling. "You okay, Jaune? You seem a bit upset. Did you not sleep well last night?" Ruby inquired.

He took a deep breath and relaxed. "I'm fine, but Ozpin called right before I was gonna have a hand to hand session with Pyrrha."

"Oh" She responded, before offering the consolation, "You can still do it after."

"True, but I'm still a bit miffed at the delay. Seriously, between the packed arenas and training rooms, and the academic work, it seems like the cosmos itself is preventing a good fight happening between just the two of us." Goodwitch had previously said that it wouldn't be a problem, but they were lucky enough to have a larger than average class, as well as the upper years taking up space to regroup after their end of year winter break. If her answers to his inquires were valid, they would have more open time to train very soon once everything settled down. As it stood, the little time they did get was for full team practice.

'Ah, there's nothing like a good-natured rant to get things off the chest.' Ruby seemed to agree with the thought because she giggled a bit at his expense. As it turns out, he had said that part out loud.

"So, were you having fun studying before you got the call?" Jaune asked.

"Eh, it wasn't too bad at first. Turns out I wasn't too far behind. I guess living with an older student and two teachers helped. Then she got all, 'Well then, your assistance would be helpful for a side project' before we started going through really old, dusty tomes in the reference section. So booo-riiing!" As if she still had one of those tomes opened in front of her, she sneezed. "I hate dust. Not Dust, the fancy glowy magic stuff, but…"

"I know what you meant, but I think both types make you sneeze." He jestingly referred to her explosive entrance into his life. They stepped out when to door opened, not paying attention as he continued his train of thought. "Really, why did the people who first found the stuff call it Dust anyway? It doesn't look like that naturally until it's refined. It's like they were asking for people to be confused. Did they expect people to automatically hear the capital D?"

"Another thing lost and forgotten to time, I'm afraid. Perhaps a mistranslation is the culprit?" It wasn't Ruby who answered, but the Headmaster sitting at his desk, staring at them with the same patient, sagely visage, and he wasn't alone.

Two other teenagers familiar to Jaune were also there. One was the pale guy in the purple hat, dressed now in a tailcoat suit that matched… somewhat. It was a good outfit, at its core, but several parts of the ensemble clashed horrendously. His shoulders were adorned with golden tasseled epaulettes. The lime green waistcoat had this hexagonal pattern, and if his burnt orange dress shirt were any brighter he'd need his sunglasses, which he had left back in his room because of the thick fog obscuring the land. In total, he looked more like a circus ringmaster than a Hunter. 'Then again, since we're encouraged to wear colorful stuff, top marks for effort I suppose'

The girl, however… "Coco, is that you?" He asked rhetorically, knowing full well who she was.

She gave him a cocky half smile, eyes obscured by her own shades. "Who else? But let's save the reunion and introductions for later. Business before pleasure and all that."

With the greetings wrapped up, Ozpin began. "Mister Arc, Miss Rose, thank you on arriving on such short notice. In light of the tragedy during your Initiation, I felt it apropos that you be given the opportunity to avenge your colleagues."

"Just a quick question, and by no means is this a complaint." Jaune clarified before asking, "If you wanted our teams for the mission, why are two higher-year students here?"

The pale guy, languidly shaking his head, expounded in a silvery voice, "Firsties always get supervision, and in this case, that would we us. Standard procedure, I'm afraid. You would normally get a fully licensed Hunter, but since this is relatively low-key…"

With their presence explained, the headmaster continued, "Your mission is to return to the Emerald Forest for a search and destroy level 3 mission, possibly 4 if complications arise." Clicking a holographic button on his desk, pictures of recon detailed the two scenes. "These are the recordings of the two scenes taken by a Recon Corps scout."

Examining the photos, Ruby quickly pointed out, "Well one of them is clearly a Nevermore, based on the pinions embedded in the ground. Did they wander too close to its nest?" The question was aimed more at herself based on the inflection. She was professional in her observations and decorum. Jaune, looking at the other scene, however, was not.

"Were they freaking blind? Did they not see the warning sign, or warning painting to be more specific?" He curtailed his cursing due to the presence of authority.

"I believe it was more of a case of overconfidence." Ozpin answered.

"So just stupid then." Jaune callously surmised.

"Jaune, don't speak ill of the dead." Said his co-leader sternly, an unusual shift in mood.

"It's what they get for rushing in what's clearly a Deathstalker lair without a plan of action. Probably got entranced due to their carelessness." He didn't know or understand why she was defending them, but a known Grimm occupying territory so close to Beacon was odd.

Ozpin cut off their minor argument before it might have escalated, "In addition, these two will be accompanying you strictly for observational purposes. I'll leave the remaining logistics to you. Good hunting." With a small smile to exhibit his laissez-faire disposition, he turned his chair to look out the window and take a sip form his mug, a sign of dismissal the four heeded.

Once the elevator closed, Jaune asked, "So was it just me or does Ozpin's chair look a bit phallic?" Which unexpectedly generated giggles from his second in command.

Seeing his perplexed look, as she seemed to play the part of an innocent girl authentically, Ruby countered with, "What? I'm 15, not 5." 'Despite Yang's wishes.' She didn't say that last part aloud, being in an enclosed space with two strangers and a guy with enhanced senses.

"Fair enough. So Coco, I see that you like the beret. I told you that it would work."

Quick to retort, "And I see that you finally got an upgrade" Coco gave him an up and down look of inspection, twirling her dyed caramel lock of hair. "Good for you. Hoodies are definitely not your style, but I'd take that over Ringmaster Barley over here."

The still unnamed teen in purple quipped with thick sarcasm, "Ooh, what a scathing snub. Definitely haven't heard that one a million times. Who wrote your material? The quiet brooding guy, Mister Walking Tall, or the nervous little b…" Coco interrupted him with a hard poke to the chest and an irritated stance.

"Watch it, you circus reject. At least my teammates can still show their face in public." That seemed to strike a nerve as the jester's eye twitched in a momentary lapse in control.

"Too far, size queen." He replied with a wide, sinister grin that reminded the other three of Jaune, gripping his cane hard enough to crinkle his lavender-dyed leather gloves.

Thinking something was about to start, the two first year students took a step back, with Jaune wishing that he had some popcorn at that moment, but he had to fight a smile from the entertainment. His companion, on the other hand, looked nervously back and forth, not liking conflict of this nature between comrades.

Seeing the doors open, but with the two still glaring daggers at one another, Jaune cut in, "All right, I'm gonna have to cut in through your weird foreplay, but I've got shit I'd rather be doing right now. You two can hate-fuck all you want later, and more power to you. Excuse me." He strode between the two; heading towards the cliffs to wait for the others, followed by an uncomfortable Ruby huddled in her cloak.

Both blink at the interruption, before shaking with poorly repressed mirth as they followed. Coco whispered after she had calmed down, "See, I told you that he'd be funny."

"Did you… hehe… see the look on Little Red's face? Probably thought that… pfft… we were gonna rip each other's throats out or something."

"Yeah." Coco sighed from nostalgia. "Reminds me of CFVY's first mission. Must be a tradition or something to make newbies nervous."

"You failed, by the way!" From up front, Jaune called back to them, having heard every word.

"Damn it, I forgot about his good hearing."

"By the way, you've got a good sense of these things, is…" Jaune could not hear the rest, as the anonymous Hunter whispered close to her ear, nor would he give Coco the satisfaction of turning around to blatantly eavesdrop and quell his trifling curiosity.

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It took about fifteen minutes for the others to meet up at the launch pads overlooking the Emerald Forest, currently shrouded in grey. Below them, only the tower's roof of the ancient husk of an outpost spanning the chasm was visible.

"All righty then." Jaune spoke up cheerfully, "Simple mission today. All we need to do is find the two Grimm that killed the other teams and kill them back. We're separating to get this done ASAP, as they're on near opposite directions. We've programmed the pads to send us each about half way to from their last known location. Any questions?"

"Ooh, ooh, I do!" Nora jumped with her hand raised, before pointing to the two extras with both hands, "Who are they?"

"Supervisors, babysitters, or whatever else you choose to call it. Apparently it's standard procedure for first years on missions." Jaune shrugged indifferently.

"Now now, there's no need to be rude, stud. Introduce us." Coco cut in with a honeyed tone.

After a heavy sigh, "This is Coco, leader of team CFVY (Coffee), and…" Briefly frowning in thought, "Hang on, I didn't get your name."

With a modulated chuckle, the unknown said, "No need to worry, I shall do it myself." After clearing his throat at an unnecessarily loud volume, "Ladies and gentlemen, you have the distinct pleasure of being in the presence of the one, the only, Jack Napier! Illustrious leader of team JORN (Jack-O'Lantern)!" His introduction was as loud and boisterous as his attire, giving a dramatic bow.

"Pay no attention to this grandstanding idiot." Based on the widening of her ever-present smirk, Coco took more than a little satisfaction in raining on his parade. "Party pooper" was his muttered reply.

"O-kaaay" was Yang's response, following up with, "So what's our catch of the day?"

Ruby said with a touch of disappointment, "Team RWBY got the Deathstalker."

"Why so glum?"

"Because Jaune cheated and JNPR got the Nevermore." She whined adorably.

"Tell me, how does one cheat a coin toss?" He rebutted, pointing out her flawed logic.

Dramatically pointing at him accusingly, "I don't know, but I will find out."

"You do that." He responded blandly to the challenge before remembering to say, "Oh, one last thing. We'll rendezvous at the altar ruins north of here where we got picked up after Initiation. Did I miss anything?" He looked to Coco, the last question addressed to her.

Coco slid next to him and grabbed him in a one-armed hug, the other holding her handbag. "Just that I'm tagging along with you. Unfortunately, that leaves you four ladies with Jack-off." Jaune just shrugged her off, rolling his eyes at her antics as he touched a button on the screen of his scroll to activate the pads, launching his team into the air and vanishing in the fog.

"WHEEeee~!" Nora's squeal of joy faded in the distance.

"Are you ever going to stop calling me that?" Jack asked, seemingly taking no offense to the nickname since he was still smiling.

"Sure, as soon as it stops being funny. Don't worry ladies, he's harmless" was her parting statement before she launched off after the other four.

"Well, that's reassuring." Blake commented. Harmless wasn't the best choice to describe a Huntsman, even one in training.

"Well then! Guess that leaves you four lovelies with me on delightful stroll in the woods. I can already tell that this bug hunt be oodles of fun."

His flirtatious tone garnered a disgusted 'Uggh!' from Weiss and Yang in a rare agreement, to which Jack replied with sass, "Oh please, don't flatter yourselves. None of you are my type. So, now that the playful banter's out of the way, away~ we… go." In reverse order as the other launch, Jack flew into the air and was quickly followed by team RWBY.

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The quartet, plus one guy skulking behind them from a distance, was keeping conversation light in both interpretations of the word. They needed to keep an eye out for any dangers, and stuck to positive conversation bits. Though the soft discord of nature and wildlife was a good indication that there weren't any Grimm in their immediate vicinity, they remained ready for that to change in an instant.

The conversation had been primarily commandeered by Yang, injecting humor as she appointed herself in charge of morale. She had tried a few jokes, but they met an unappreciative audience. So she tried another approach…

"So, how do you think they know each other?" Wording the question vaguely on purpose to reel them into another pastime of hers, gossip.

"Who?" Hook, line and sinker, the blonde caught the Blake by the bow, figuratively of course.

"Jaune and Coco, of course. I know her from Signal, and she seemed familiar and quite comfortable with boss man. Ideas?"

"Can't we just ask him?" Ruby asked.

"Don't be such a buzz kill. Besides, he's not here right now. So we could go back to my comedic genius, or we can have fun speculating about possible competition for your first crush. Are they childhood friends? Estranged lovers? Come on." No dice, apart from Ruby's by this point habitual denial.

"You seem to be doing enough brainstorming for all of us." Weiss commented, uninterested in the current topic of discussion. "And so many big words like inane and estranged, good for you." She added a touch of condescension that came far too easily.

"Joke well crafted." It was a lot easier for Yang to socialize how she wanted to with her friends from Signal due to familiarity and being fellow extroverts. 'Speaking of which, I should meet up with them. Haven't really talked with them since we arrived.'

However, for the moment the outgoing extroverted blonde felt that she had to try with those closest to her in proximity; a socially awkward sibling on a good day, a bookish introvert, and an isolated, frigid rich girl. "I have so much to teach the three of you." She sighed thinking about the task she was placing upon herself, but she was no quitter.

"As much as I would love to hear the continuation of your chat about cute boys, you ladies can gossip and paint each other's nails later. We're here." Jack spoke up for the first time since they landed, fiddling with something in his inner jacket pocket.

A few hundred yards away in front of them was a cave, identical to the one shown in the photos, down to the crude drawings of stick figures and a scorpion figure on the right side of the entrance. The entrance had been widened recently, as evidenced by the stone fragments dusting the ground in front of it.

"How did they possibly think, 'Oh this looks like a good place to sleep for the night?' " Weiss asked with heavy skepticism.

"That sounds like something Jaune would say." Blake commented, earning a 'humph' from the heiress.

"He did say something along that line of thought." Ruby corroborated, still holding her weapon in its compacted rifle form and fixing her sights on the dark entrance. "But I'm wondering more about how and why has a Deathstalker this old remained this close to Beacon without anyone doing anything about it?"

"That I can answer, Hoodie." Jack cut in. "I came across this cave in my Initiation with my partner, and I asked old Ozzy afterwards. He responded with something about knowing one's limits, or some equally boring philosophical idiom. That, and they don't typically leave their caves. Rule of thumb; so as long as they're not poked, they don't poke back." Which explained the graffiti warning.

The four then discussed their plan of attack for how to deal with a foe that could very well be the biggest, oldest Grimm any of them have ever faced. Yang lamented that Nora wasn't here. If she was, they could pull off the same strategy they used on the Onigumo with the shape charge.

The cave looked to be too small for them to fight effectively, especially Ruby with her scythe. It had likely been tunneled out deeper in to make room for the growing Grimm, but it was deemed too hazardous to assume that it would be large enough for them as well. That wasn't even considering the most lethal weapon in the monster's arsenal.

Once a Deathstalker reached a certain age, its stinger emitted a golden light that had a hypnotic effect in darkness. It was believed to be the main reason why they stayed in their caves for extended periods of time. If passersby weren't prepared, they would be literally walking into its embrace.

After a few minutes, with their plan ready to be implemented, Ruby declared with cheer, "All righty team, let's move out!"

Looking around, Blake asked, "Where's Napier?"

"Don't be silly, he's right… there." Their supervisor had vanished without a trace.

"Where'd he go?" They started to search the area for him, but their efforts proved fruitless.

"It's fine, this is our mission anyway. We just…" Blake started to refocus their attention on the task at hand, but became distracted by a faint scraping noise coming from behind her. Turning around, she could see a small glint in the distance, but it didn't look like anything nefarious. She walked away without another word to investigate. 'Just a quick check can't hurt. Probably something someone had left behind. It'll do no one good to just leave it here. Waste not, want not.'

The grey around her faded to black, but her gaze was firmly locked on her target of interest. As she approached, it seemed to grow brighter and after a minute she could see its curved tear shape standing just above eye level with a gentle bobbing motion that composed a low, steady hum that soothed her. She could hear someone call out behind her, but it wasn't important enough to look back. It could wait until after she found out what it was that drew her here to this respite. 'Perhaps I can just rest for a while. I've been running for far too long.'

As she took another step, the shattering of glass startled her out of her musing. On instinct, she looked down, away from the source of the golden glow to spot the cause of the noise, and in that moment she immediately felt fear that something was wrong. She could see just fine in the cave due to her excellent night vision, and she had just stepped on a pair of glasses. 'Wait, cave?'

"BLAKE, GET DOWN!" The voice behind her, once almost muted, was now loud and clear.

The shout cleared the previously unnoticed haze clouding her mind, and she ducked in time to feel a whoosh of air rather than the large object that made it. The blast of a shotgun echoed in the cave and the bright projectile impacted above her, drawing out a sharp chittering from what could only be the Deathstalker. Without looking up, not trusting herself to resist the hypnotic trance, she fled back to the light. Forming a clone underneath her after she jumped, she used her imitation for an assisted jump to gain distance and quickly exit the cave she hadn't even perceived that she entered.

By the entrance, she passed Yang wearing her sunglasses. In their reflection, she could see the golden light once more, but now because of either her awareness of its origin, the glowing red markings below it, or from a brief glance in a reflection, it no longer had any mental hold on her. 'How could I be so stupid?'

For Blake, cursing her lack of preparation would have to be put on hold as it burst out of the cave. It was indeed the largest Grimm any of them had ever seen, with its stinger as large as any one of them. Patches of moss grew on its carapace, exemplifying its age. Battle marks also marred the bony exoskeleton, including a loosely hanging mandible. A spiraling gash furrowed around the wound deep enough to show black, almost appearing like a crude tribal tattoo.

"Blake, are you hurt?" Ruby asked in concern, to which Blake admitted, "Only my pride."

"We'll worry about that later." Yang put a pin in her self-pity session. "Weiss, Dust this bitch!"

Ignoring her teammate's crass signal, Weiss stabbed her rapier into the ground, ice formed on the ground, spreading rapidly and spiking upwards as it enveloped the scorpion's legs, snaring it for the moment while they retreated. With all of the loose rocks scattered about, it would be all too easy to lose their footing, so they decided to take the fight elsewhere, luring it to another wide, open space, as the trees would interfere. With their lack of intimate knowledge of their terrain, their destination was the rendezvous point a few miles away.

As fast as they were going, there was a brief concern that they would lose their prey, but the Deathstalker proved the accuracy of its name as it broke the ice encasing it and sped after them in quick pursuit. Despite standing still for often years at a time, there was one documented case where one had chased a retreating Huntsman for over a hundred miles across the deserts of Vacuo before its prey had been fortunate enough to run into reinforcements. If he hadn't been so lucky, it would have chased until he dropped from exhaustion, following the scent of despair and panic. Trees proved nearly ineffective in slowing it down, batting them aside with its monstrous pincers.

Within a few minutes, it was now within a hundred meters, virtually nipping at their heels. Every so often, Ruby or Yang would turn around just enough to give a few blind fire shots to taunt the creature if they got too close to one of the others. Ruby could easily outrun and avoid any charge, being the quickest, while Yang was the most durable and could tank the hit, leaving their two partners unmolested in their strategic retreat. A lucky shot from Crescent Rose even burst one of its eyes, though without the added icky special effects a certain friend of hers would have supplied.

With an insectoid shriek, it accelerated and made a beeline towards its crimson mark as she zipped through the trees. Finally the four, with Blake remaining hidden behind a tree, arrived at the destination of their mad dash, a wide-open meadow with tall, knee-high grass. No longer surrounding by thick forest, they could begin their execution, in both senses of the word.

Yang loudly charged the overgrown arachnid head on. Taking a page from Ren's martial arts, albeit with her own personal flair, she did not take its attacks head on. Instead, the boxing blonde parried them with blast-enhanced punches, using the oversized pincers' momentum against them. She kept her distance from its main body so it wouldn't give her a bug hug. "Could you hurry up, this guy packs a punch."

"Really? You're doing puns now?" Weiss shouted as she dodged a swing from its tail with a glyph-enhanced jump. She and Ruby tried to flank it and cripple its movements, but to no avail. Though its legs and sides lacked any significant amount of bone armor, its natural exoskeleton still proved durable enough to render their slashing effectively impotent. While Weiss did possess the required piercing power if she chose to enhance her blade with White Dust, its legs were too jittery and too small a target. Besides, it would be carelessly extravagant to be so wasteful on a secondary objective.

"If not now, when?" Yang replied, another voice and external stimuli to distract the Grimm, evading a thrust from its tail with a small hop, hitting the back of the tail with one of her rounds. "Could you hurry up, Blake? I've got about 30 seconds before I need to reload, and I think this guy likes me a bit too much to give me my space."

All three of them were diverting its attention so that their fourth member, who was now crouched in the high grass, could sneak behind it. She was now wearing Yang's aviators to avoid a repeat hypnotism. Though its effectiveness in the fog was lesser in pitch darkness, it still glowed faintly, forcing the girls to be cautious and avoid direct eye contact. With it fully invested in her rambunctious partner, Blake jumped and grabbed its tail just under the stinger, making it remember that it had four lights to snuff out. Locking herself in place with her legs, she took great pleasure in stabbing her cleaver with two hands repeatedly to sever the golden stinger as retribution.

With the Grimm now recognizing her as the primary threat, it began violently swinging its prehensile tail around to dislodge her, sending her flying towards a tree. Forming her third clone of the day, Blake jumped back towards the fight and switched with Ruby. Its efforts would only delay the inevitable, as the stinger hung loosely from its tail, decommissioning it as lustrous gold faded into dull lemon.

With a recoil-assisted jump, Ruby sped through the air, cleaving the tail as she past, doing the last bit of damage necessary to amputate the stinger as it fell point first, lodging into its carapace.

Seeing how easily it pierced the thick armor, Ruby shouted, "Yang! Use the stinger!" Their main plan was simply to take it out of the picture before wearing it down, but it proved durable enough to shrug off almost all of their attacks with ease.

"Far be it for me to ignore a golden opportunity. Weiss, give me an up and down!" On cue, two white glyphs formed; one below her feet to loft her in the air directly above the target, and another to plunge her straight down at near terminal velocity, leaving a trail of brilliant flames like a comet behind he with the activation of her semblance.

Yellow crashed onto gold, penetrating the carapace with explosive force. The nightmarish scorpion shook in its death throes, shrieking one last time before finally going still and slowly disintegrating into vapor.

Yang let out a post-victory cheer, "HA! Nailed it!" Doing a move like that reminded her of her earlier attempts in Signal to incorporate a blade component for this purpose, like that Stake Driver weapon that she favored immensely in Bloodborne. Unfortunately, like in the game, the final design was too bulky for her tastes, unable to properly compress into a civilian setting. Or rather, she could, but she was unable to find or afford a material of a sufficient durability that could withstand the impact of multiple semblance-enhanced punches and also capable of folding with the rest of Ember Celica. In the end, she had focused on durability and had no regrets doing so after an incident when she almost lost an eye when a blade snapped.

Shaking her head free of thoughts of what could have been, she took a deep breath to fully appreciate how awesome the last minute had been. With her still posing on top of their defeated enemy, this entailed her taking a deep breath full of smoke, causing her to cough fiercely as she stumbled off, lest she take in more and make her condition worse.

"Yang, what's wrong?" Ruby asked, but her sister held out a hand for her to wait a bit while she felt like she was hacking up her lungs like she had pneumonia. Finally, she recaptured her breath and fought the urge to gag.

"Blegh! How did Jaune make this look pleasant? Feels like I inhaled a whole cigar!" Though the smoke had no dominant aroma at first, it quickly soured into the vilest stench she had ever experienced, and that is with human senses; passively enhanced by training and aura, sure, but human all the same. She could only imagine how horrid it must be for someone with Faunus lineage. 'How have I never smelled this before?'

"How would you know that?" She asked with innocent curiosity, only for Yang to reply a bit too quickly to be considered casual, "It's just an expression."

Blake unwittingly provided a distraction when she vomited, arranging an opportunity to share that story never. She too tried to gain the ability to smell Grimm, and was paying the price.

After regaining her equilibrium, she shared Yang's sentiments. "He could have warned us they smell worse than death." With such staunch distaste and regret, the remaining two decided to hold off on following suit.

Seeing a joke would help lighten the mood, Yang joked, "Not to worry, it'll feel better soon vomit girl."

Blake, rather than a glare or a burst of denial, calmly walked over to the blonde and stared at her dead in the eye. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Blake said, "I will allow you to call me… Blakey, every now and then. But if you ever call me that again I will shave you bald, have it fashioned into a scarf, and you will never be able to prove that it was I who had done so."

Not willing to call her bluff, the threatened just nodded with wide eyes. "Did you hear something?" Weiss asked, cutting the awkward silence short as they could now hear the crashing of fallen trees. Running towards the disturbance to investigate, the roar of an Ursa and the crackle of electricity entered the fray, along with a "YEE-HAW!"

As she suspected, the bear-like Grimm burst through the tree line, but it was not alone. As it collapsed to the ground dead, its passenger rolled off to the side, revealing its rider to be the one and only, "NORA VALKYRIE!" using her own name as a victory cry. "Oh hi there! When'd you get here?" Waving and shouting cheerfully as she ran to join them, with Coco now also running behind her to catch up, turning around to demolish a small pack of Beowolves that had been tailing her with rapid gunfire.

The four stared at her, processing what had just occurred. Finally, Blake asked to confirm the reality before them, "Did you just ride in on an Ursa?"

"Yes, indeed I did! I didn't want to miss out on all the fun." She explained, leaving more questions than answers.

"What do you-" Weiss began to ask for her to clarify on what she meant by fun, before she noticed that Ruby was no longer next to her, but instead inspecting Coco's handbag and asking its wielder about it. Though they were too far away to be audible, she suspected that her partner was babbling off every detail she could take note of. Honestly, her carefree exuberance was refreshing, and it gave her a brief ghost of a smile.

The caw of a Nevermore in the distance interrupted their festivities, still unseen even if the fog was beginning to clear. As though it was a herald, Nora's scroll began to ring the generic factory default tone, a monotone beeping.

"Uggh, I need to change that ASAP." She complained before answering it to silence the noise, "Hello~?"

"Hold on, I've got her." Ren spoke on the other side of the call, though based on how faint voice and what he said; he must have been talking to someone with him. "Nora, are you in position?" Ren asked with a raised voice.

"One sec!" Standing on top of the Magnhild's head, the shockwave of an expended grenade lobbed her to the top of the ruin and shifted her weapon to its grenade launcher form; aiming upwards in the direction she had come from. "ALL SET!" She yelled supposedly so that RWBY and Coco could hear her as well.

"Coco, what's going on? Where are the others?" Ruby asked, as she was perplexed about the recent course of events due to a lack of context.

Another croak from the Nevermore sounded before she could answer, being much closer than before as they could now see it in the sky half swooping, half falling right at them. Coco answered with a deliberate half-answer, "Oh, they're on their way."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The cloying mists added an eerie, bleak ambience, though the forest was still no less beautiful to team JNPR, plus one, than before. Jaune asked, "So, who's killed a Nevermore? Excluding Coco, of course." He added the last bit having seen her in action before.

After a trio of negatives, he continued, "Well, that makes four of us, then." Their cumulative inexperience with their future prey did nothing to temper his obvious enthusiasm. "Another one soon to be off the list."

"What list?" Nora inquired, "Like a shopping list? Oh, Ren, that reminds me. We need to go and get the stuff at the place."

Despite her lack of clarity, her companion understood what she meant. "We'll go after we're done here."

"As I was about to say, I have a long term goal of killing at least one of every known Grimm species." Jaune answered. "If there are more that are unknown, I'll just make them known before checking them off."

"Ambitious." Pyrrha commented. As far as she knew, there were very few that could lay claim to that achievement beyond drunken boasting. "So you want to travel? Many types are region-specific."

"Yep. So many in our profession limit themselves to one area, but I want to see it all, kill them all, et cetera." Jaune sighed in delight at the thought.

"All right there, reign in the murder boner." Coco quipped.

"Don't tell my murder boner what to do." He grumbled.

"Pfft, how hard can killing one of each be?" Nora asked.

"Ever heard of the game Pocket Monsters?" She had not. "Jade Cocoon?" Still nothing, and so Jaune continued listing from his vast mental library until Grimm Hearts got a positive response. "Oh, yeah, that's pretty fun."

"Well, worse than that."

"Oh man, you are screwed~!" The bomber giggled.

"Umm… do you and Coco know each other?" Pyrrha asked, wondering about the familiarity between the team leaders but waiting until Nora defused.

"Yeah." He answered simply, before clarifying; "Her team came to my hometown for a mission, which is a pretty popular spot to do so with semi-regular Grimm attacks. With Crow's Hill being a hotspot for Hunters, and the Town Guard, it's as close to training wheels as one can get in our line of work. Speaking of which, I knew I recognized Velvet. Good to know I'm not that crazy just yet."

"Who's Velvet?" Nora quizzed.

"The rabbit Faunus that Cardin and his flock were with yesterday. I'm usually good with faces, but no offense Coco, your teammate's a bit of a wall flower."

"None taken, but she likes it that way." She replied passively, asking, "What can you do?" with her body language.

"Get her to wear something besides all that brown." Addressing his team, "Long story short, Miss Adel here is a bit into fashion, and Mom took a liking to her. At that point, it'd be weird if we didn't meet."

"As lovely as this trip down memory lane is, you still got a job to do. I've got plans in Vale." Coco reminded them, adding a selfish reason for her prodding.

A while later, the time passing quickly with them discussing what they knew of Nevermore Grimm, they encountered where the deceased team had last been known to be alive. Camping equipment littered the site; scorch marks and bullet holes marred the surrounding trees in all directions. Large feathers, a sign of the Nevermore's signature ranged attack embedded the ground, dried blood on more than one of them upon closer inspection. It was a grisly scene, and served as proof that the perpetrator was still alive.

"This battle damage doesn't make sense." Ren focused on the scorching, evidence of Fire Dust usage, and the bullets. "They were firing in all directions like they were surrounded. And based on the feather size, one that big could never have landed, or even come close to ground, without leaving noticeable destruction. Also, there are no furrows in the dirt or grass from its talons."

"Maybe they encountered a roaming pack like we did, and the emotion and noise drew out the nearby birdie?" Nora speculated.

"I don't think so." Jaune began to add his own observations. "If it was a bunch of Beowolves or something like that, then these ballistics don't support that. Way too many shots were missed."

Pointing in a northwest direction, "Look. A lot of it was aimed upwards, aiming for something in the trees. Spread out and we'll do a sweep; see if we find any other clues. The majority of damage was directed that way, so let's start over there." While they began, their observer strolled silently and watched them work.

It's a difficult task to track anything airborne. They don't leave tracks, and even if they had, that downpour a couple of days ago would have washed them away. However, if the bodies were carried away, then some more of the fallen team's effects might have in their stead. Their weapons definitely had because they had already been recovered.

Ren, the most agile of the four, speedily scaled and jumped up the trees, hopping from branch to branch to find any markings left by passing Grimm. The other three searched the forest floor.

It wasn't too long before Pyrrha found a large scrap of cloth hanging on a bush. Comparing it to a picture of the team, it was a match for what one of them was wearing at the time. A bit further in the same general direction, Nora found a scratched up grey wool cap snagged on a low hanging branch.

"So at least we know we're heading in the right direction." Jaune summarized, before looking up. "Ren! See anything up there?"

Replying in a calm, but unsatisfied timbre, "Nothing; no claw marks, scratches… Thirty meters ahead, your 1h."

Looking to where he directed, one bush had been disturbed. Something large had been dropped on it and then nearly pulled out by the roots in some sections. A torn and stained sandal was next to it. Sifting through the red-crusted shrubbery, they found a small clump of black feathers.

Holding one feather close to his face, Ren thought aloud, "Judging by the shape and size, I'd say this was from bird roughly three to four times the size of an average raven." Jaune looked at him questioningly, silently asking how he would know that. "I like birds, it's a hobby" was his answer.

"So what, they were picked up by a flock?" Nora asked.

"It would appear that way, yes. One must have struggled enough to be dropped here." Her partner concluded. "Technically, a group of black birds, including Grimm, is called a murder."

"Pfft, seriously?" Jaune asked disbelievingly, enjoying the joke. "Why?"

"Yes, because most of them are scavengers, eating carrion. Due to swarms of corvids appearing during and after battles, there is an old superstition that they were messengers of death to carry souls to the afterlife. This is also supported by another belief that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and scavengers go for the eyes first." With Ren lecturing on an eerie topic, Nora's face turned a bit green.

Pyrrha sympathized with the bomber's discomfort and asked, "Can we please talk about something else? Something a bit more pleasant."

"How about we figure out what carried them off and why? I've never heard of Nevermores this small before."

"Because they're not Nevermores, they're Quoths." Their tag-along spoke up, standing a few feet behind Nora.

"Quoths are a bit similar to their larger cousins, but they never get anywhere close in size or durability. They're a swarm type, and they ally with older Nevermores." Coco explained. "But I'm not getting paid to do Port's job. As an aside, you've been doing pretty good tracking so far." Adding a bit of praise for them at the end.

"Thanks. Would you be so kind as to handle the swarm?" Jaune asked, surprising the other four because he held an above average passion for killing Grimm, and to gift them to someone else seemed out of character. "I'm just being practical. If we're dealing with a swarm, then we need lots of rapid ranged dps to take them out efficiently, a category Pyrrha and I fall short."

Nora pouted and raised her hand to complain, "But I've got plenty. It's kind of my thing."

"Yes, but I'd rather you save it for the big boss. Even if you did, after the first few shots they'd just disperse and surround us like the last team." He explained.

"I don't know, why should I?" Coco asked flippantly. "I'm only supposed to supervise, after all."

"Yes, to supervise our conflict against a Nevermore." He emphasized the type of Grimm listed in the mission detail.

"Aah, a loophole." She caught on to his meaning, as the debriefing didn't account for other Grimm.

"Just so." Jaune gave her a devil's grin. "Besides, you look so bored, and you don't seem the type to dismiss an opportunity to wreak havoc with your BFG."

"My what?" She asked, not knowing what he meant by the acronym, until he pointed at her 'handbag'. "Oh. Well, when you put it that way, how could I say no?" She swaggered away with a smile.

"BFG?" Nora asked, which only made Jaune grin and say, "You'll see" to leave them in suspense.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few minutes of trekking a steep uphill later, they hid behind the thinning tree line. Peeking around, they could see the murder roosting on an outcrop packed so close together with an unnatural stiffness that if Jaune couldn't smell them, he might not have noticed them. At the top, where stone was visible, was a large gap, likely for the Big… Momma? Daddy? 'Argh, they don't have a gender, who cares?'

All five took slow, deep, calming breaths to reaffirm their emotional training and to avoid ruffling any feathers until they were ready. With a steady calm and a few head nods, that time had come to pass.

Coco went first, her handbag expanded and opened fire, raining a storm of bullets upon the abyssal corvids and ripped them to shreds, along with their rocky roost. Team JNPR flanked her, in case she missed some and they got too close. While the majority was messily massacred in mere moments, over a dozen outliers from the other side scattered as predicted in the kicked up dust and aimed to converge upon them. The single targets were such easy shots for their firepower they might as well have been in a barrel. Jaune had shifted Evelyn into its rifle form and racked up four splats, losing to his bunkmate from a smaller 'clip' size. Ren had racked up the most kills with the advantage of having two guns.

Nora had spent that time staring at Coco's weapon and its capacity for mass destruction and whistled in appreciation. "Nice."

"Baby, you know it." She replied smugly with a wink, her dark brown eyes visible with her sunglasses drooped slightly, appearing to the other three as being unperturbed by the bursts of 'blood' from the ones Jaune had shot down.

"So what does BFG stand for?" Jaune replied to the bombardier's question with, "Big Fucking Gun" before he started laughing as he had a revelation.

"So that what Jack meant when he called you…" He began to explain his sudden outburst of humor, but stopped when the six-barreled Gatling gun was swiveled to point right in front of his face.

With a sickly sweet voice, she asked, "Oh I'm sorry, did I interrupt you? Apologies."

"That." He spoke calmly as he finished his sentence, like he was discussing the weather instead of a massive gun pointed at him, scanning the skies for the big game, placing Evelyn back in her holster and actively confirming in his mind the additional weights of Orion, Brador, and Achilles secured on his person. "What, you thought I was going to be rude and parrot Napier? Shame on you." He wagged a finger at her lack of faith before pushing the gun out of his face with the same finger.

"That's what I thought. And her name is Sasha, by the by." They set up to wait for the guest of honor to arrive, relaxing but remaining alert and ready. "At least you still know how to show a lady a good time. Here I thought I'd be a bored spectator."

"I aim to please." He responded neutrally with a bow, sitting down on what was left of the outcropping to wait out.

With their earlier cacophony, it shouldn't be too long before-

CAW! The Nevermore had arrived, and made its displeasure at their activity loudly known. With a mighty flap of its wings, it sent a large, both in number and size, salvo of feathers seeking to pierce them through. Being closer to the trees, most of them took cover behind them, the tips of the pinions just breaching through the thick trunks.

"Well, look who finally showed up. And I had just gotten comfortable." Jaune said mockingly as he stood back up after rolling and called, "All right Powder Keg, you're up!" As he looked at Nora while he was talking to her, he missed Coco giving him a pointed stare.

"Ugh, finally!" complained the girl, shouldering her trusty weapon. "All right, let's do this!"

Seeing its projectiles were ineffective, the Nevermore swooped down closer to either ram them or to pluck them from the ground. Once in range, Nora cackled as she discharged a pink grenade at its head. Its head jerked down from the concussion and its body followed suit; low enough for JPR to jump and climb aboard, with Jaune adding loudly, "Get to the rendezvous point!" before they took to the skies out of sight.

"Ah man, I hate running!" Nora complained.

Drawn by the clamor of their conflict, a lone Ursa burst into the clearing and charged towards her with a lumbering gait.

An impish grin dawned upon her as she had a wonderful idea. "That's right, come to Momma."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

High above the trees and soaring through the skies was an enraged Nevermore and three hitchhikers, tiny by comparison as they hung on its massive wingspan. Pyrrha and Ren managed to land close to the joints connecting the wings to its torso. Jaune…

"Oh fuck, I'm gonna be sick!" The two barely heard their leader grumble as he went up and down on the middle of its right wing. It had twisted while he was in mid jump, leading to his current predicament as his grip loosened with every beat of its wings.

As though it felt his nauseous predicament, the Nevermore showed the Grimm's capacity for kindness and sympathy. By doing a barrel roll.

"FUCK YOU!" He shouted in defiance as his hands no longer held onto feathers as he catapulted higher into the air.

Thinking quickly for a way to avoid falling to his death, a near certainty at this height regardless of any landing strategy, he pulled out Orion's bow form and a quicksilver bullet to shape into an arrow; he no longer needed extra blood as a catalyst to jump-start the process. In a similar vein to his landing strategy in initiation, he fired his arrow with a line of red ribboning behind it.

Streaming through the air, it embedded into its mask deep enough to act as an anchor as Jaune swung below it and around its neck, circling it an additional time for good measure before straddling its neck, gripping the crimson loop like a horse's reigns. After a quick grimace due to landing a little rough between his legs, he looked over his shoulder to check on his comrades, he saw that they were still on before yelling with a goofy adrenaline-fueled smile, "Did you see that? Because I will not be doing that again!"

"You okay?"

"Just fine!" Looking over the side of the bird, "Let's see if we can get this thing to go in the right direction." Still gripping the line, as he hadn't willed it to dissipate it yet, he pulled as hard as he could to the right. The Nevermore barely budged until it let out another shriek that caused his ears to ring, unhappy of being conscripted as transportation.

Once more looking back, he checked their progress on doing damage. Ren's couldn't pierce its armor, but Pyrrha's had made more progress being better designed for piercing in addition to her superior leverage with a javelin.

With a plan forming, Jaune called for his partner to join him up front to assist him in steering, and for Ren to call Nora to see if she was in position.

After a slow crawl, with a few stabs to help pull herself forward, Pyrrha sat right behind him on the oversized scavenger's neck, gripping him in a half hug with her left arm. They could speak to him at a more normal volume with her head right over his shoulder. "What do you need me to do?"

"Stick Miló right about here." He patted a spot about a foot in front of him. "Just don't go too deep cause the feathers up here are much smaller."

"Okay" Complying with his request, and after the ear ringing after the resulting shriek faded, she asked, "What now?"

"I need help in steering this thing. Pull it with me like a joystick." While he was speaking, he allowed the line to fade away. "We need to head…" He checked his scroll to display the current location of everyone, focusing more on the direction where the pink dot was heading. "That way!"

She reached around him, pressed comfortably tight against his back as she gripped her weapon, his hands overlapping hers. With a heave on both their parts, they managed to alter its course. With the ruins now dead ahead, a new problem arose. They had no way of directing it to go up or down, and they only had about a minute to figure it out before they overshot their target. Sure, they could just turn it around, but they didn't know how long this current situation would last before their ride wised up.

Shifting the blade forward and back did nothing but make noise, but Pyrrha had an epiphany. "What weapons did you bring? If you can hit its head hard enough, it should go down just like with Nora's grenades."

The idea brought a laugh of joy to the man that, in any other circumstance, she would be hugging and not hanging on to prevent a long drop and a sudden stop. "Brilliant!" After his compliment, he started cursing himself. "Why the fuck didn't I bring Djura? That would make this so much easier."

Regaining his composure, "I've got something else though. Pyrrha, hold my right leg. I'll need to stand for this."

It was an inspiring show of trust. As he stood up against the buffeting winds, the only thing preventing him from splattering on the ground and or trees was her grip. He had to put his shades back on so that he could see without squinting. Pulling out Brador, he was just thankful that the others couldn't see him about to do something incredibly stupid. 'Right then, fortune favors the bold… Shit, I hope this works, or this is gonna suck~.'

Flipping the mace around so the sharpened flanges pointed to him, he took a deep breath before stabbing himself in the gut, glad that the wind covered up his groan of agony.

Pyrrha, who had no idea as to what Jaune had just done, called out behind her, "Is Nora ready?" Her partner wobbled in her grip, but she dismissed it as the wind and clutched his leg tighter.

"She's not answering her… Hold on, I've got her! Nora, are you in position?"

After a few seconds, the three of them could hear her cry, "ALL SET!"

With no gain to show for his pain, Jaune had a moment of doubt that he did it correctly, or even if he could, as all he had to go on were the dying, drugged words of someone he had just met. Pulling out Brador, he felt a strange sensation both on his body and aura, but he pushed through and slowly pulled the mace out of his gut far greater than it had been before. The shaft had extended by double on its own through a hidden mechanism, and a dark crimson substance composed of his aura and blood now covered the head.

It formed almost like in the game, but with only approximately a third of the spikes that were much smaller, the largest about the size of his hand. Though this would raise later questions, a bout of faintness pushed them out of his mind. Shaking his head to banish it, he yelled a warning to hang tight before raising the Blood-Reinforced mace above his head, he brought it down with a war cry to bludgeon the bone-plated head, a splash of red accompanying the strike. Cracks formed from the force of the blow as he kept hitting the same spot over and over to keep its descent going, another ear-splitting squawk accompanying each blow. Soon, the ruins were in view, along with their fourth member standing on top of a column, and six others as their audience.

Seeing her fire twice, they abandoned bird. Pyrrha landed in a textbook three point landing, while Jaune did the same, except one of said points being Brador's enhanced head, the substance rippling upon impact; Ren followed suit with a tuck and roll. Soon after they landed, their ride's head exploded in a burst of pink smoke.

"Nice shot, but why two?" Jaune asked, curious when one would have been sufficient for her magic trick of making a Nevermore head disappear.

"Well, he looked really hungry, so I gave him seconds." Nora, having jumped down, happy that she had her share of fun for the day.

"Oh, it's not a complaint. There's no kill like overkill." He put a pinky finger in his left ear and twisted it to clear it. "Fuck, that thing was a screamer, right Pyrr-ha?"

He momentarily paused saying her name as he took in her new look. Her limbs and half of her face had been showered in copious amounts of crimson. Some even dripped off her glove-clad fingers. "It wasn't too bad." She smiled kindly, pleased with their job well done as she wiped it off before it got into her eye all without a hint of disgust, her warm emerald eyes providing a sharp contrast with the extra red as they as they stared at his gut suspiciously.

"This is awesome! How are you doing this?" To break the tension before it became tense, Ruby burst onto the scene inspecting Brador and it's upgrade with awe, poking it but retracting her finger with a hiss, shaking her hand like it was burnt.

Jaune smirked confidently at the smaller source of red. "Like I promised, a demonstration of Brador's little hidden power up. Then again, I might be able to use it for more…" A sudden haze washed over him, that brief moment of faintness returning with a vengeance as staggered and took a knee, using his weapon to prevent a full collapse.

Both girls were swiftly by his side to help him. Though he could not see it, he could feel how ill he felt, his pale, shaking form accentuating his visual pallor. From his chest to his left arm, he could feel veins pulsing a tattoo as he maintained contact with Brador, weakening him with every heartbeat. He opened his hand to let it go, severing the connection upholding the Blood Reinforcement, coating a circle of grass with sanguine paint before returning Brador to form of a bladed lantern at his waist. Just being upright and remaining conscious took a great deal of effort.

"Uggh, fuck, blood loss feels awful. Note to self, do not hold that for extended periods of time without bashing something into paste." Jaune spoke with a heavy breath as everyone formed up, his voice a bit shaky but still holding his resolve. With Pyrrha shouldering him and taking some of the weight, he stood up once more.

"Should we call in a medical transport?" Seeing Jaune, who portrayed himself as strong and damn near invincible, so weak concerned Blake.

"No, do not make that call. I'll be fine, just give me some time." He refused to be that guy who needed medical assistance on his first official mission at Beacon. He knew that it was male pride, but he didn't care.

"What did you do, stab yourself?" Weiss had also taken an interest at the evidence of his previous injury and how it matched his own choice of arms. Although it had been healed during his onslaught on the Nevermore's head, evidence of it still remained with bloodied slits on his tailcoat.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I had a good feeling that it would work."

"You mean, a gut feeling?" No one laughed at Yang's pun, and an uncharacteristic glare from Pyrrha preemptively silenced any future attempts of humor from his fellow blonde. Backing off, team RWBY's blonde kept her thoughts on how similar his enhancement looked to an in-game weapon to herself.

Pyrrha then leveled that glare it on him, looking intimidating and alluring. 'Man, I'm messed up in the head. Course, that might just be the blood loss talking right now.'

"What do you mean, a good feeling?" Her voice, once warm and caring, was now almost malicious in its sweetness.

"I've, umm, never done that before." As she maintained her facial expression like a statue, Jaune felt a chill creep down his spine that he wasn't sure was do to his current condition or not. He thought quickly to get out of the pickle he had gotten himself into. "I thought I could make it work with my semblance. Sure, it might seem… a tad reckless in hindsight, but it worked, didn't it?" He smiled as nicely as he could, awkward and nervous as it was.

After a few moments, his partner relented the icy stare before sighing and returning to her usual gentle self. "Just be more careful, all right?" He repressed showing his relief. Dealing with a woman angry with you is a tricky business, according to Dad… and Gramps… and Uncle Pip, especially when said woman can knock you into next week.

"I promise to try. I'll hold off using that in battle until I get a better hang of it."

Yang cut into the conversation again with incredulity and a newfound respect. "Damn, girl. Dye your hair white and you could have passed off as Weiss's sister."

Though the group expected said heiress to retort due to offense, she strangely did not. "That is not inaccurate. You did behave similarly to Winter while on duty momentarily."

"You have an older sister, too?" Ruby asked, receiving a nod in confirmation.

In the corner of her eye, Yang spotted the final member of their expedition stepping out from the ruins, filming them with a camera held unnecessarily close to his face, looking rather pleased as he shouted, "And Cut!" She growled before walking in anger towards their voyeur, lilac irises bleeding into red. "Hey, where the hell have you been, asshole?" She got up in his face, roughly shoving the camera aside.

Jack just stood there, looking over her shoulder, unaffected by the pugilist's aggressive behavior. "Around. Got some pretty decent footage, if I do say so myself. Only a tidbit of editing to be done, what with you two not holding your Grimm and all, but oh~ my, what a wonderful performance! The banter was a nice touch."

"You were filming us?" He wasn't making the situation any better for himself. She gripped his collar, lifting his a few inches off the ground, her posture promising a punch if she didn't like his response.

"Of course we were." It was Coco, not Jack that answered her question. "It's good PR for Beacon. He's just being a creep about it." She had a camera subtly wired onto her shades. She had missed most of the aerial encounter, but it was the end that mattered the most, anyway.

"See?" Jack's light rasp brought Yang's attention back to him, but then it shifted to the knife he pulled out of his sleeve to hold to her throat. It was only then that he made eye contact. "So what do you say we let this all be bygones, hmm?" He let out a throaty chuckle.

Scoffing, she let him go, "Fine, have it your way, Jack-off." It was easy for her to see why Coco had given him that nickname. She rejoined the group that Jaune was attempting to convince that he was fine. "See, I can walk." His body betrayed him by stumbling, but he remained standing, the stubborn teen that he was. He tried to protest Pyrrha shouldering him once again, but she gave him a look with a smile that Yang hadn't seen since her real mother died. It was a look that brooked no arguments, and it held firm here as well.

"Thank you for your generous assistance." He said with a half-smile, for he suspected that it would have been the only answer she'd accept.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Their trek back to Beacon was a slower pace due to Jaune's weakened condition, but they made it back without any more Grimm, which was both good and bad fortune. They returned as quickly as they could, stopping only once at a passing stream for Jaune and Pyrrha to rinse off. As Blood Reinforcement used his actual blood, the splashes it caused didn't completely dissipate. While they cleaned up, the rest of the team shared the highlights of both of their adventures.

Any opportunity for a jump-starting their leader's healing had been missed. Both of their larger kills had dissipated too much before Jaune got to use them. When asked if it was because the Grimm population had been culled during Initiation, their theory had been corrected by Coco. Students come to the forest all the time to train in ways that an arena couldn't provide. If he had the energy or the free use of his arm, Jaune would have face-palmed for not seeing such an obvious loophole. After all, it did state that fighting was only restricted specifically on campus.

Both black and yellow wanted to ask why he gave no warning, but they wanted to wait until he recovered before interrogating him again. In a separate conversation between them, Blake pointed out that it was her own fault for repeating Yang's accident.

Their supervisors had already left for the debriefing with Ozpin, saying that they'd take care of the paperwork as thanks for the show. Coco left with the call of, "Don't be strangers!"

"I'm not going to the infirmary, Pyrrha, and that's final. I just need some rest, not Dr. Fennel's bedside manner. A solid meal with some extra iron, plenty of fluids, and someone to play the lovely nurse who's studying healing." His speech was a tiny bit slurred, like he was inebriated. Taking a brief pause in thought as he looked at his supporting partner. "I've already got one out of three." He felt that he could walk on his own power now, but his partner proved to hold her own stubborn streak and refused to let him go.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. This isn't my first bout with blood loss. I recover from it quicker than average. I should be fine even by your standards by morning."

"And you're not going to try and exert yourself until I say you're better?"

"I place myself under your gentle care." He declared his surrender with a conspiratorial wink. "Though I wouldn't say no if you're a little rough." And with a telling facial glow, he knew that he'd finally convinced her after ten minutes of back and forth.

Yang supported her fellow blond. "See, Pyrrha? He's gonna be okay if he's messing with you like that."

"All right." Pyrrha acquiesced reluctantly.

"Thanks, I owe you one. No wait, two now." He corrected himself.

"Forgive me for changing subjects…" Weiss began. "Jaune, where did you get a book written in Pthumerian?"

"What are you talking about?" He asked distractedly, looking around them casually as they passed the shade of a tree in the courtyard.

"Don't play the dolt, you're not very good at it. Do you know how long it took me to dig through the archives to even find that dialect? I just found it this morning after a week of searching." Weiss was curious at the symbols written on the cover of the book he had shown Tukson, and tried to find it in the extensive academy historical records. She was annoyed at the extra effort that she went through for her research, but her desire to know overwhelmed her grievances. That digging wasn't entirely figurative, either, as a dual sneeze caused a chain of events that led them buried under the contents of two shelves. For Oum's sake, there was more dust on those tomes than a minor quarry.

"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about. But thank you for the offhand compliment, I think." He was feeling a mild paranoia.

"Perhaps this could wait until later?" Ren asked diplomatically, picking up on Jaune's unease and subtle hint to drop this for now. He felt the strange, but reliable instinct that they were being watched, but the closest visible people outside their group seemed to pay no notice to them from over a hundred yards away.

Blake wasn't even paying attention, too deep in thought with the recent past and near future to be fully aware of the present.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

That was all the conversation that their unseen observer overheard with eyes wide open. He had just been in the middle of a call when he froze at hearing the group of voices pass him. A few interesting lines of dialogue would hopefully make a decent apology for cutting his… employer off.

"I have more to report, sir."

"Do you, Mister Bronzewing?" The voice, and the face on the video screen that accompanied it, was both placid, but that did not mean he was out of the woods. It was the lack of an imminent threat that made it even more so.

"I have overheard a conversation with my second person of interest. He denied it, but some dialect named Pthumerian was mentioned."

"Are you certain of this?" It may have been a brief burst of low reception, and Dove would never know for sure, but there was a level of alarm in the voice on the other line.

"I am, sir, and I was less than fifteen meters away at the time. The Schnee heiress complained how long it took for her to identify it from a book of his."

There was a pause, and Dove didn't know if that was going to end up good for him or not. "How interesting. You have done well, Dove. I will have further orders for you shortly. Until then, remain vigilant in your other task, and speak of what you have heard to no one." The teen sighed in relief that the call was over. He hadn't had an involuntary activation of his semblance in some time, and the last time led to the pickle he was currently in, but it seemed that he had found a light at the end of the tunnel.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ozpin sat alone in his office, as the two students had left after their mission report. Overall it had been positive given their success without any major issues arising. Coco had been unable to see the majority of their strategy take place given the weather, but she had called it unorthodox but a success nonetheless. It had brought a smile of amusement, for not many students thought about riding Grimm. It had happened from time to time, but it brought back fond memories.

After seeing the footage, Jaune Arc's revealed ability seemed intriguing, being able to give an output of force equal to Miss Valkyrie's rather potent explosives with a single swing, but it was a double-edged sword. Some caution would have been advised, but his partner seemed to have that in hand. This was not the first ability acquired through a semblance that had a heavy cost on the user.

Mister Napier's assessment was somewhat more critical, citing Yang's temper and her partner being entranced. His recording only started after the Deathstalker had emerged, but there was not more time to review as he had some calls to make. The first one would be with the Vale Council concerning the upcoming election. Not for himself, as he declined his own inherited seat as headmaster of Beacon, appointing a trusted proxy in his stead, but concerning the now vacant seat after Councilor Miel's heart failure. Though he was not on the Council, they still held him in high esteem despite opposing views on some issues.

After that would be the families of the deceased would be after that. He could only hope it would help them in their time of grief. It wouldn't be the first time for a call of this nature, nor would it be the last, and they never came easier to him.

Plus, there were odd reports from Commander Rock of the Recon Corps. A scout had gone missing in the Forever Fall Forest while surveying the area for the upcoming expedition for the first year class. Further investigation had revealed a population of unheard of record lows in one of the northern sections, and no sign of who or what was responsible.

There was no rest for the wicked, as the saying goes, so those who stand opposing them must be equally attentive.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now in the privacy of their living quarters, Weiss reopened her inquiry without hesitation. Jaune and her contended the text's dialect, even through the door while PB&J, as Yang called them, changed out of their combat attire. Meanwhile, Blake snuck by to get the first shower and to continue her train of thought.

Bored with the book talk and revved up from the mission, Nora skipped away to tinker with a new recipe, humming a tune as she half heard Ren's random numbered plea for caution during experimentation as he was in the kitchen making a white bean soup, rich in iron for her semi-incapacitated hammer buddy. 'Pfft, I haven't gone kablooey in, like, four months. Besides, I only do itty-bitty batches anyway. Worst case is no more eyebrows for a couple days. Now, let's see if I can add some more shock and awe.'

Ruby felt uncomfortable due to the high tension between her two friends, and so she retreated to make sure her blade was as keen as ever. A cursory glance in the forest had her thinking that there was a tiny nick, and that could not be allowed. She would come back when tempers, or just one in this case, had cooled to repair any potential damage.

"That's it! I am through with your obtuse game of denial." Weiss stated waspishly. The day they met was enough of an assault on her dignity. She went to retrieve the source of her headaches for the past week and opened it to a random page before brandishing it at her verbal adversary. Jaune, currently shirtless, was lying down on the couch with his feet raised by a pillow, keeping his word as to follow his caretaker's instructions. "Here's an easy way to prove this. Let everyone else read it, and we'll see who's telling me the truth."

"Good then. I'll have you know I take my integrity as a point of pride."

Pyrrha picks it up first. Examining the ink and paper, she passed it along giving an apologetic look to Jaune. "I'm sorry, but I can't understand any of this." She wanted to believe what he was saying, and he didn't look to be lying. But as the saying goes, 'seeing is believing'. One by one, the others expressed a similar inability that baffled Jaune, though Ren did add that the symbol on the cover matched one of his tattoos, and his emblem; the numbers also had a similar form to those used on Vytal.

"I don't get it. To my eyes it looks no different than Vernacular." He apologized, but he maintained what he believed to be the truth.

"What does?" Blake exited the bathroom, asking about what they were debating now while towel drying her hair.

Weiss explained with a tinge of satisfaction at being proven right, keeping her stare on the source of her ire, "Jaune's claiming that he's reading his book like it isn't scribed in some presently illegible dialect."

Taking a cursory look at the pages, "It's different, but it looks like an archaic form of Creole."

"I've never heard of it." Not that her admission of ignorance meant much. After the development of a common language, identified as Vernacular as a joke taken seriously two to three centuries ago to facilitate trade, other tongues had quickly died off with only a few learning them the old-fashioned way. Plus, with modern technology, they could be quickly translated, so even those few were dwindling.

"I wouldn't expect you to, and no, that's not an insult. I wouldn't call it ancient, per se, but Creole is still fairly common in Menagerie." Blake added succinctly, looking a bit tense to Pyrrha, but not nearly as much as during their talk earlier that morning.

"You've been to Menagerie? Why?" The heiress's questions weren't meant as a snub to the region, nor were they interpreted as such. The only standout traits of Menagerie to her knowledge were some decent farmland, a few Dust mines amidst the desert, and the highest Faunus per capita population in the world.

"… I was born there." With a deep breath, she removed the towel from head, exposing her second set of ears and revealing her to be a Faunus. She was no longer nervous, having received such positive reinforcement from earlier interactions, and stood with confidence.

"Oh…" Weiss wasn't sure how to respond. If she had looked at Blake when she left for the library with Ruby, she would have seen that her ebony-haired teammate had not worn a bow. Pushing aside any reflexive response to formally reply, "Thank you for your honesty."

Feline ears twitched as Blake gave her a weird look. "You're… not mad?"

"I am uncertain as to how I feel. I would, however, appreciate to hear your motives for your disguise, as well as why you chose now to discontinue the practice."

Before Blake responded, a door creaked open behind them. Ruby popped her head out and asked, "Is the arguing done now?"

"Yep, show's over. Get that nick out?" Jaune asked, doubting there was actually a flaw on such high-quality metal after such minor use.

"Turns out I was just seeing things, so I gave the rifling a good scrub as an apology." Taking a seat next to Jaune, she picked up the book that had accrued so much intrigue, aimlessly leafing through the pages and squinting at the contents.

With the interruption out of the way, Blake continued her confession. "I find it easier to err on the side of caution. Look at people like Cardin, and those who sit idly around him. With all the discrimination around us, even in such a progressive place as Beacon? I wanted to be recognized and treated for who I am, not what, rather than be judged as a criminal for being born. As to why now? Truthfully, I was debating as to when, but certain factors swayed things in this direction. The most notable being how easily I was entranced due to my heightened senses."

"So what happened?" Jaune asked with his nurse inspecting the aftermath of his healing to confirm that it was done properly without any internal bleeding or organ damage. She also inspected his arm, which had a few veins in bold red trailing like creeping vines down his arm all the way to his fingers. 'Likely another effect of my latest trick.' She fetched a salve to soothe the inflammation.

"I heard something like a scraping noise, so I turned and before I realized what was happening, I was in the cave." It was possibly another trick of a cunning Grimm to grab the attention of those on its doorstep. "It was sheer luck that I broke something that one of its previous victims left behind. After that, I knew that I couldn't wait any longer if my status compromised us like that again."

Yang snickered, finally finding an opportunity to say, "I'm just glad that you weren't scissored in the not so fun way." Prompting her to give the 'I'll tell you when you're older' line to Ruby before she could ask what she meant.

"Hmm, perhaps I was hasty in calling them idiots if it was that potent." Jaune commented to the side, unheard by all thanks to the feline Faunus's dismayed groan except for the two redheads on the couch with him.

Ren, back in the kitchen, "That was after you showed Nora and I this morning."

"Another reason was Jaune, and how you all reacted to his… diverse family. Furthermore, he persuaded me to follow suit in his conviction of trusting you all. If he wasn't hiding his lineage, then neither should I." She refrained from mentioning the metaphorical carrot that Jaune offered for her confession.

"You sure that it wasn't my offering to arrange a meet and greet with Noire along with an autograph?" Jaune had no such constraints, meeting her glare stemmed from her shame at easily accepting such a bribe with a Faustian grin. "Oops. Oh, by the way… -pation."

"Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent, lest the hunter become the hunted." Ruby, who's reading had gone unnoticed until that moment. "I like this one."

She was confused at the questioning stares sent her way. "Is something wrong?"

"You… can read that?" Weiss wasn't sure how to react to that, especially after an equally large reveal from another teammate, and dare she say it, friend. Also, she hadn't any time in actually deciphering the language, so there was no possibility that Ruby could have done do. Not to mention, based on her personality and that her partner knew what she had been working on in her spare time, she would have helped her.

"Sort of? The ink shifts back and forth between black and red, but it's in plain Vernacular when it's red. Is this some kind of special ink?" It reminded her of something in a comic book or an adventure story, where the writings in a book was only legible in special circumstances.

"See?" Jaune wildly gestured to the newfound support in his claim. "I told you that I wasn't crazy!" Pyrrha gently pushed him back to lying down. "Settle down, please."

"What do you mean color shift? It's just plain black scratches to me." Yang tried to suspend her disbelief for her sister, and she wasn't someone who was good at lying.

"That's the other half." Ruby explained without clarifying much, but little of what was occurring in regards to that book made sense. The heiress looked like she shut down, staring blankly enough at her team leader to give a doll a run for her money. Her mind whispered feverishly about wasted time when she had a translator on hand with her the whole time. To top it all off, all she had to do was confront the book's owner sooner for this to occur.

"Does she need a reboot or something?" Jaune didn't have some magical way of understanding languages to his knowledge. This was the first time, other than that bookstore guy, that someone had read the Oedon Codex, so how was he supposed to know that it was written in some dead language?

BOOM! "Whoops, my bad!" Nora called from her room, the cracked open door opening wider from the force of the blast, a small puff of pink smoke escaping through the gap. "Nothing's on fire; so~… progress!"

That seemed to do the trick. Weiss grabbed the book, but before she could abscond with Ruby as well, Jaune grabbed the codex firmly and asked gravely, "Did you forget your manners in the woods?"

Snapping out of her blank state of mind, "Apologies. May I borrow this to translate? If Ruby will assist me, of course." Her partner nodded, seeing how obsessed she had been in the archives. It wasn't that big of a book anyway.

Jaune's first reaction was to say no, but that would make it seem even more suspicious, and they might draft up unseemly conclusions. While thinking, he stared at her dead in the eyes, ocean peering into ice before coming to the realization that this was an opportunity. "I want your word that your findings, notes, thoughts, and anything else to do with this project remains here, and goes no further than the people in this room without my consent."

Seeing that this was the most sober that she, or any of the other seven, had ever seen him, Weiss nodded. "You have my word, my utmost care, and my discretion." Without being asked, the others gave their assent, Pyrrha and Ruby doing so first. Nora was last, as she had halted from her experiments to rejoin them, sans eyebrows.

"What's in here?" Ruby asked, though she believed that she already knew the answer.

"Mostly philosophy" He answered non-directly, letting go of his book. "But in places it's at odds with common doctrine that might ruffle some pompous feathers if skewed in a negative light."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"How productive has your time been in Beacon, son?" When his father told Cardin that he expected an update, he didn't expect it would be so soon.

"Um, well it's been slow going so far. We are gaining influence with our combat skills, and beginning to seek out White Fang agents. We had a small snag in losing a match, but we are working to compensate."

"Do not sound so uncertain. It implies weakness and invites doubt." His father was more of a boss than a parent. "As to Misters Lark and Thrush's loss, it is of no consequence in the long run. What is consequential, however, is how you move forward. There is always someone stronger, and all you must do is be strong enough to accomplish your goals."

The son didn't even ask how he knew who'd lost because he knew what the answer, or the lack of one, would be. He didn't need to know the whole picture, just the portion that directly involved him.

"And what are my new goals? I do not believe you expect me to accomplish miracles in days, sir, and you would not call me so soon if there hadn't been a new development."

"Perhaps you can be taught, after all." There was no tone of pride, as expected, just more of the same cold professionalism. "I have been informed of a greater threat than that of insurgent Faunus infiltrating the Huntsmen ranks. Your secondary objective is now your only priority."

It must be serious if the threat of White Fang agents with huntsman level training was being pushed to the back burner, and if he weren't already paying his full attention, Cardin would be now.

"I have received intelligence from a reliable source that Jaune Arc is a servant of an ancient pagan threat."

That was not an accusation to make lightly, and it took more than just a moment for Cardin to process the new information. He may not like the student in question due to his opinions and claims, but he needed more information before acting on such an accusation. "There have been several threats to the Golden Eagles in our history, and converting backwoods pagans is a simply a matter of patience from what you've told me. What makes this one so different?"

"Temper your curiosity, for names have power, especially now. Only the highest ranks of our order even know whispers, but all have felt its touch from the shadows. As to your mission, you must find proof of his… faith. Perhaps a book, or something kept on his person at all times. Act with haste, before he can shepherd other misguided souls to his flock. He has already begun with his associates."

Living with and being raised by such a cold individual had taught him well regarding subtleties in conversation. This unusual sense of urgency heavily underscored the importance of what his father desired him to do.

"It will be done with discretion, Father. He has vocally and with action declared himself persona non grata to the Light, smearing our good name and history with slanderous lies."

"Doubtless, he is building influence as you are, but for his own objective. If what I suspect is true, he ranks among the greatest threats to Humanity in living memory. Remain vigilant in the Light of the Maker, and let it burn all corruption in your wake."

"Amen!" No, Cobalt Winchester was not one to exaggerate things out of proportion. Politicking, definitely, but nothing on this scale. Perhaps it would be a good time to lay low, train, and garner a more positive reputation. With a new task at hand and some hefty leeway, he'll be able to leave the Faunus be without raising any alarms from the informants, spies, whatever they chose to call themselves, now all but confirmed to exist. It would facilitate most paths to success with a more positive reputation among his peers. While they did nothing but watch before, except for that rabbit girl's team, that didn't mean acceptance. 'But for now, a little maintenance is in order.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"AAAAAH! FUCK EVERYTHING, FUCK ME, FUCK LIFE!" For once, Jaune didn't laugh, snicker, grin, or show any sign of amusement to Yang dying yet again. Instead, he felt empathy, for he too tasted the bitter ashes of defeat many times against the dreaded Ludwig the Accursed / Holy Blade, but she didn't know about the second epithet yet.

Jaune knew he had to speak up before she did something rash and threw her controller at the TV. Goddess knows he'd been tempted on more than one occasion to do just that. Putting his hands on her shoulders, lightly digging into the tense muscles like he learned through practicing on his sisters, "All right Sunny, take deep breaths. If you rage quit, that's just giving up. Don't give him the pleasure."

"Well sorry I'm not a flawless master of the game like you." Yang's irises were no longer red, and her hair wasn't sparking embers with the aid of her manifestation, so that was a step in the right direction.

"Three things; One, I'm experienced, not perfect. There's no such thing. Two, I've felt exactly how you feel right now for the same reason." It was a lot harder to stay angry with someone who didn't feed the flames. He just had to mimic how Dad handled Mom in one of her black moods, minus carrying her away for 'No brain, stop that right now! Focus on the angry woman in the now!' "That lovechild of a horse and a blistering cyst is widely considered in the BB community to be the hardest boss in the game, and for good reason."

His fingers worked like a charm; her tension drained away as he worked on a knot in her trapezius muscle, she asked, distracted by the refreshing sensation, "Mmm… What's the third thing? That it's just a game?"

"You shut your heretic mouth right now." He chided only half-jokingly, adding a touch more pressure on his thumbs on the muscles between her shoulder blades to elicit a gasp and a sigh of pleasure. "I was gonna say that I'll help you if you want me to."

With her frustration pushed aside, her pride had no ground to stand on to refuse him. "Yeah okay. Flip you for first choice in side?" Everyone gamer had his or her preferences for split-screen, after all.

"No need, it's your decision. You're the one that needs to stay alive, after all."

"Then I'll take the right." She almost didn't want him to stop, but this boss needed to die. The screen split in two as her character used her beckoning bell to call for help, which soon arose from a plume of grey smoke. Jaune's character, named 'ArcAngel', earned an almost obligatory, "Hah ha, I see what you did there" from the self proclaimed master of Pun-Fu. It looked fairly close to him in attire, weapons, and even facially upon closer inspection with the monocular. 'ArcAngel' wielded a similar weapon as Jaune, a combo of a saber and dagger. Jaune pressed the L1 and it became a twin-blade, with Evelyn in his offhand.

"It's the Rakuyo, in case you were wondering. It's found later in the DLC." Jaune explained, answering her question before she could ask. "So if you're done checking me out, let's do this."

As one, 'Yang2Yin' and 'ArcAngel' strode into the boss room, the floor covered in blood and mostly dead corpses, with Ludwig waiting on the other side. Pyrrha and Ruby, the only ones left in their suite with the others elsewhere, came at the same time by coincidence. Ruby because she needed a breather after Weiss had discovered that the ink did have a special property; it was completely in Vernacular when exposed to moonlight. She wanted to ask Jaune about it, but since he didn't even notice that there was an issue in the first place, he probably didn't know about this either.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha wanted to check up on her partner to see how he was recuperating. All in all, he looked much better and would easily make a full recovery by tomorrow morning. His skin tone had been restored to a healthier pale tone, and the phlebitis on his arm had virtually disappeared. Both redheads did not say a word, as they were familiar enough with gaming protocol to not disturb them.

The two faced what could only be described as a sick, twisted abomination even Grimm would find disgusting; A hulking, horse faced behemoth with this weird open cyst in its neck lined on the inside with eyes and far too many legs kicking into open air. The two gamers worked in tandem, switching aggro and letting the other do damage. After a few close calls, they whittled down the health of… 'Ludwig? Like Jaune's greatsword?' down to half before the screen went black. Their question would wait until one side or the other had been slain.

"What is happening?" Yang reacted to the cut scene currently playing with a small panic.

"Phase 2" Jaune replied shortly, as he liked the scene in question.

"Oh COME ON! Why does he have a giant glowing sword now? I mean, it looks epic and all, but what the fuck?" She had spent so much time studying its fight patterns, and now all that work meant Grimm shit, that being nonexistent.

"It was on his back, just not glowing." Ruby piped up behind her sister. "And I will get that swear jar."

"Overruled, and it's all right. I find this part easier and more predictable. Just follow my lead." Jaune soothed his gaming partner, as felt the need to specify that in his mind with his IRL partner right behind him.

To Yang's relief, this leg of the fight was much easier. Just avoid the monolithic sized glowing blade of death wielded surprisingly effectively by a half crazed centaur from hell, the flying blades of energy, the AoE, the really big AoE combo, and a blue 'PREY SLAUGHTERED' text covered the screen. And there was much rejoicing, with a female scream of jubilation and a loud crack of a well-deserved high-five between the two blonds.

Once the victory dance died down, Pyrrha asked, "Why would you name one of your weapons after… that?"

"Well, technically I named it after who horse-face is named after. Ludwig Glanz, the founder of the Order of the Shining Blade, now known as the Golden Eagles."

"You're kidding?" Yang asked, a bit lost, "I thought you hated, and I quote, 'those damned pigeons', unquote."

"I hate what its majority has become, but not all of it. If they were openly acting like a shady mafia, then they'd be excommunicated so fast I wouldn't have time to laugh as it happened. Hell, I even named another of mine after a formerly prominent member; Djura Adel."

"Who?"

"You know, the guy in Old Yharnam with the Gatling gun?"

"Oh, right… that crazy prick." That guy might have been annoying, but he did give her that sweet Stake Driver. Jaune asked her not to kill him, and go to him from behind after killing Darkbeast Paarl. 'Come on, protecting the monsters, really? That took a special kind of messed up.'

"A lot of the bosses and hunters in the game were inspired in the same way I was with naming weapons."

"Who's that guy?" Ruby pointed to the screen. Standing next to the head of the fallen boss was another hunter NPC.

Jaune's good mood sobered, "Ah, him. He's based off Orion, one of my Dad's teammates." Yawning, "Well, I'm heading to Dream a bit early, sleep off what a day this has been. Pleasant dreams, ladies." It had barely passed 22h, which was astronomically early for him. But, given the circumstances, it didn't seem that unusual of an idea, for him as well as for the three wishing him a good night's sleep. 'Perhaps the best in over a week.'

"Thanks for doing that thing with your fingers." Yang wanted to get the last word in before getting some ice cream as a reward. Looking behind her to see the pair of redheads giving her confused looks, "Just a little rub, girls. Nothing frisky, but he's got magic hands."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter End

Bestiary:

Nevermore

Giant Corvids that scour the skies. They are known to travel in flocks, and usually become more solitary in larger sizes. Wingspan ranges between forty and eighty feet in length. Primarily attacks by plucking its prey and dropping them from great heights, as well as a charge powerful enough to collapse buildings, but is capable of fighting while grounded. They also have a ranged attack by launching a barrage of feathers with enough force to pierce thick trees. Their black feathers also function as armor, with their neck as the weakest point on its body.

Quoth

A swarm type raven Grimm that come in large numbers, frequently at least three dozen at minimum. Their size ranges between three and five times the size of an average raven, and can be mistaken as a common blackbird from a distance. They have no armor, and are not nearly as deadly as their larger 'cousin', but quantity can have a quality all on its own. Swarms can form alliances with their solitary brethren in ecosystems that make prey hard to reach for the behemoth-sized birds, earning protection in exchange.

Deathstalker: Ambush-Class

Grimm that resemble scorpions are most commonly found in the deserts of Vacuo, but can be hidden anywhere else in Remnant. Newborns are about the size of large dogs, have no armor, and are pure black in color with the exception of small red eyes and a dull golden stinger. They are intelligent compared to other newborn Grimm, and primarily ambush at night or in dark places such as caves when and where they are practically invisible.

Unlike most Grimm, a Deathstalker is one of the few species that are almost always solitary creature, only leaving their dens in situations dire for the people of Remnant.

After a decade old, they grow on average to the size of a small car, growing as they approach the next stage in their evolution. They quickly form an exoskeleton and their stinger glows a bit brighter, acting in the dark as a mildly hypnotic lure for their prey. Grimm this old prefer caves and tunnels near civilization, waiting for unaware tourists and explorers to walk into their territory.

After a century old, they can reach the size of a bullhead, depending on its age. Red markings form on its facial mask. Their stinger glows even brighter with an even stronger hypnotic ability, and they gain the ability to turn off the glow, preferring to wait until prey is too far from the exit to escape.

I added the tracking scene before the Quoth and Nevermore fights because in what I've seen of RWBY thus far, only in Mountain Glenn in volume 2 have I seen anyone in the show doing something resembling hunting, instead of just heroes slaying monsters. I thought that it would be fun.

For the thought on Yang's friends, did no one else find it odd that they were never mentioned again after arriving at Beacon? Granted they were black silhouettes at the time, but still.

It's been twelve chapters, and I am ecstatic about the nearly unanimous positive response this has had thus far… much happier than I am at myself for being a cliché and asking for reviews. Alas, I have now succumbed to temptation.

UNTIL NEXT TIME!